Royal Caribbean Bans Smoking On Balconies

Following a recent surge in smoking bans across many other cruise lines, Royal Caribbean is the latest cruise line to ban smoking from all balconies.

Effective January 1, 2014, Royal Caribbean will ban all smoking on balconies throughout the fleet. Smoking was already banned inside all staterooms, but the new ban will designate Royal Caribbean’s accommodations as completely smoke free. Any guest found violating the new ban on smoking will be fined $250 to cover the deep clean the stateroom would have to undergo.

Smoking onboard Royal Caribbean ships is also banned in all public areas except for Casino Royale. According to Royal Caribbean, “Cigarette, cigar, e-cigarette and pipe smoking is permitted in designated outdoor areas of the starboard side of all ships; with the exception of Oasis-class ships that will allow smoking on the port side of the ships.”

Recently, Disney, Cunard, P&O banned smoking on all balconies throughout their fleets. Windstar Cruises banned smoking on certain balconies on the line’s older ships. As of now, Carnival and Norwegian are the only two remaining major cruise lines who haven’t banned smoking from their fleet’s balconies.

Royal Caribbean has stated the change in policy was “made to provide a comfortable cruise for everyone.”

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Mike Faust is an avid world traveler, often found traversing city streets in Asia and Europe rather than his home city of Boca Raton. Mike has touched down in 39 countries, set sail on 35 cruises, and flown over 400,000 lifetime miles.